CLEARWATER, Fla. (AP) – A jury awarded $5 million to a violinist from Maine whose dream of playing with the nation’s great orchestras was dashed in a car accident.

Xioa-Cao Sha, 41, injured her left shoulder in 2001 after another driver ran a red light. She said she suffers pain, numb fingers and weakness in her arm.

On Thursday, a jury deliberated for less than an hour before awarding her lost wages, medical expenses and nearly $3.5 million for pain and suffering.

“They did honor to my music,” said Sha, who now lives in Brunswick. “This wasn’t about money. It was about my music.”

Sha, who has played the violin since she was a 6-year-old in China, was once considered a world-class violinist. She is the daughter of renowned Chinese conductor Cao Peng, and her mother was a member of the Beijing opera 20 years ago.

Liberty Mutual – which insured the other car’s driver, 63-year-old Margit Showalter – is on the hook for the award. A spokesman said the insurance company does not plan an appeal.

“Liberty Mutual is prepared to honor whatever contractual obligation we have to our policy holder,” said Glenn Greenberg, a spokesman for the Boston-based insurance company.

Defense attorney Michael Derrick had asked the jury to award Sha no more than $189,000, arguing that the world of music is highly competitive and Sha had no guarantee of success.

He told the jury Sha could still earn the $30,000 a year she made with the Florida Orchestra by teaching and periodically performing solos.

Ling Tung, a conductor who once performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra, said he listened to Sha play after the accident. “I was so sad, you know, realizing that she tried to keep up … but her playing is weakened,” he said.

Sha still plays, performing solos three or four times a year. But she can practice only about 15 minutes a day, far from the six hours or more she one practiced daily. In February, she made her Carnegie Hall debut.

“When I am performing,” Sha said, “the pain goes away because I block it out. After, I die.”

AP-ES-12-05-03 1627EST